All hail Baby Nut. Our new god.
Planters killed its famous mascot, Mr. Peanut, weeks before the Super Bowl, as we've covered before. Whichever marketing firm Kraft Heinz ($KHC) hired to create this campaign laid out a very specific plan: announce the death on Twitter first, then release the first commercial, tease the funeral during the Super Bowl, almost pull the ad because of Kobe Bryant's untimely death, and then finally introduce to the world the new mascot.
Did the craven and clearly pandering ploy work? Did fans rush to follow the account in droves? Did people fall in love with the next Baby Groot, the next Baby Yoda, or the next Baby Jesus?
Yes to all of the above.
The first bump in followers happened when the Twitter account changed its name and banner, and pinned a tweet about the passing of Mr. Peanut. That eulogy teased another commercial, during the Super Bowl, and once it aired you can see there was another huge spike in following. Planters saw a 47% increase in the two days since the big game, and 132% since the initial announcement of Mr. Peanut's death.
Even the Kool-Aid Man saw a jump, since it was his tears that birthed new life into the ground and gave us the gift of Baby Nut. It just goes to show that killing your mascot and replacing him/her with a baby during the Super Bowl is the right move for your brand. So is relying on the Kool-Aid Man. You can never go wrong with him. Oh yeah!
The most incredible thing about the above Facebook data is that the interest in the "Mr. Peanut is dead" marketing campaign went up and down and then back up again, exactly when the announcement happened, the wait for the funeral ad occurred, and then the conclusion. It follows that pattern to a tee, both likes and talking about count.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales, and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue, and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.